


been here all along so why can't you see

by GilgaNyan (NarryEm)



Series: Volleyball!! Gays [10]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Growing Up, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 06:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8002597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NarryEm/pseuds/GilgaNyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Tobio and Shouyou meet, they are in preschool and Tobio ends up making Shouyou cry.<br/>The first time Tobio realises he's been in love with the same idiot for years, they are at the end of their elementary school days.<br/>The first time they taste their first bitter goodbye, they are still in sixth grade.</p>
            </blockquote>





	been here all along so why can't you see

**Author's Note:**

> title from "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift
> 
> I have been thinking about how cute the childhood friend couples are in the canon world so I began to re-imagine Haikyuu where KageHina grew up together.  Everything else is still the same. Oh, and see if you can recognise subtle yaoi references sprinkled throughout ;)

 

When Hinata saw Kageyama for the first time, they were both a little chubby, barely a metre tall and excited to go to preschool.  They were both assigned to the morning class and spent the first hour meeting everyone else in the class.  The first activity that the teacher had them do was colouring.  She put out a bunch of crayons and the kids were free to pick as many as they wanted.  Hinata went straight for orange, yellow and blue since they were his favourites but he couldn’t find any.  This kid named Tobio had them all.

“Can you gimme a yellow?” Shouyou asked.

Tobio scoffed.  “No.  I’m gonna use them all!”

Shouyou sniffled.  He hated crying in front of other people but he really wanted the yellow and this jerk face wouldn’t let him have it!  In the end, the teacher had to come in and calm him down, lightly scolding Tobio for not playing nice.

Nap time after lunch could not have come any sooner.  Shouyou deliberate looked for a spot as far away from Tobio as possible.  He would never, ever forgive Tobio for being a big meanie!  But when he woke up he found Tobio snuggled up next to him, holding his hand.  Shouyou couldn’t help but smile as he squeezed his hand and fell back asleep.

 

 

-

 

 

With elementary school came their first experience with a little storm called love.  For some reason, Shouyou and Tobio had been in the same class all throughout six years of elementary.  They still fought as much as they had when they had been little toddlers but Shouyou had to admit that his best friend is still Tobio.

“Hey, Tobio,” Shouyou drawled, resting his head on the desk as they waited for the final class of the day to start.  “Do you have someone you like?”

“No, idiot.  Is that all you think about?” Tobio quipped back with a death glare.  He might have been able to fool anyone else but Shouyou could see the faint pink creep up in Tobio’s cheeks.

“It’s common for lads our age.  I heard that Yata in class six got a letter.  Momo-chan seemed upset about that though.”

Tobio avoided looking at Shouyou. “Can you keep a secret?”

Shouyou lifted his head, leaning close to Tobio.  “Of course!  We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“I . . . there _is_ someone that I like,” Tobio mumbled.

Shouyou clapped him on the back.  “Good on ya!  Who is she?  Is she cute?”

Tobio’s face turned redder.  “It’s someone I’ve liked ever since I met them.  And . . . it’s a boy.”

“Okay, that’s cool.  Is he still cute, though?”

“You don’t care that I like boys, too?” Tobio asked.

Shouyou laughed.  “Why would I?  Even if you like boys, you’re still the same Tobio that I’ve known since we were little.  It doesn’t change anything about you.”

“Thank you, Shouyou.”

Shouyou ruffled Tobio’s hair.  “Whatcha thanking me for?  Best friends stick together for everything, right?  You’re being really odd today.”

“Sh-shut up, Hinata you idiot.”

But he still grinned and let Shouyou play with his hair since it was one of his favourite things in the world.

 

 

-

 

 

“I hate you!”

The words came exploding out of Shouyou’s mouth before he could stop them.  He clamped his hands over his mouth but the damage had already been dealt.

“I said I was sorry!” Tobio yelled back.

“You thought you keep it a secret from me?” Shouyou shouted.  He hated that he was crying despite the fact that he was the one who said he hated Tobio.

“I was going to tell you later.  I wanted to find a good timing for it, that was all!”

As Tobio took a step forwards closer to Shouyou, Shouyou took two steps back away from Tobio.  “When was the right time, huh?  After you packed your things and left?  After we started middle school and I didn’t find you waiting for me to walk to school together?  Tadaomi told me that Riku heard you talking to our teacher about which middle school you should go to in your new neighbourhood!  I had to hear it from them and not my best friend!”

Tobio stepped towards Shouyou again, this time backing him up to the brick wall.  “I didn’t want to tell you when we were busy with tests, dumbass!  You get easily distracted by the smallest things.  Of course I was gonna tell you before things got that far!”

“Liar!” Shouyou shoved at Tobio’s shoulders harshly.  Tobio lost his balance and stumbled; Shouyou used that moment to break away from Tobio and sprinted.

“Wait, Shouyou!”

It was hard to see through the tears but Shouyou couldn’t stand to be near Tobio right now.  “I hate you, Tobio!  I really do!”

When he got home, he went to his room and locked it behind him.  Both his mother and Natsu seemed worried, especially when he skipped dinner.  He cried and cried until his pillowcase was soaked with tears and he felt exhausted.  His mobile screen showed twenty missed calls and fifty texts from Tobio.  He deleted the log and switched it off.  Nothing that Tobio said could make him forgive him for not telling him that he was going to move away as soon as the summer break started.

He was never going to forgive Tobio for this.

 

 

-

 

 

The thing that excited Shouyou the most about middle school was club activities.  He had a vague interest in volleyball when Tobio started to play in second grade.  What really piqued his interest was watching the Small Giant from Karasuno absolutely slay the taller players with his insurmountable talent.

It was tough to get the volleyball club going.  He was the only member for the first two years and he had to ask his friends and the girls’ team to help out with the practice.  It wasn’t until his third and final year that they had enough club members to participate in the tournaments.

The gymnasium was gigantic and the deafening roar of the crowd made him equally nervous and pumped up.  As per usual, his stomach was giving him troubles with the nerves.  He made a beeline for the washroom, hoping his stomach would settle down by the time the match started.

In front of the washroom, however, he bumped into a few guys from the Kitagawa Daiichi team.  They somehow got into an argument and while Shouyou wanted to go back to his team and get ready for the match, he couldn’t let the other team walk all over him.

“What’s the matter here?”

Shouyou froze and looked up.  His voice had changed but Shouyou could still recognise that voice anywhere.

“Sho-Shouyou?” Tobio blurted out.

“Tobio?” Shouyou exclaimed at the same time.  He glanced down to see that Tobio was wearing a matching uniform as the other guys.  “So this is where to ran off to, huh?”

Tobio sighed.  “Shouyou, I said I was sorry about that.  How come you never contacted me?”

“I told you I hated you didn’t I?” It was satisfying to see Tobio flinch at his words.  “Now I know for sure that I have to crush Kitagawa Daiichi.  Just you wait until we meet again on the court.”

As fate would have it, the first team that Shouyou and his team went up against had to be Tobio’s school.  It was a devastating loss for them.  Shouyou knew that his team lacked practice and experience but he had never thought that it would be this bad.

“What have you been doing for the past three years?” Tobio yelled through the net.  “Looks like I’m not the only one who has been running away, Shouyou.”

He could have said something back or punched him.  But he couldn’t.  The longer he stayed in Tobio’s presence, the more likely it was that he would lose it and bawl his eyes out in front of all these people.

Lady Luck seemed to have abandoned him as they ran into Tobio again outside of the gym.  Tobio opened his mouth and started to walk up the stair but Shouyou shook his head.

“They call you the king these days, from what I heard.  You have changed, Tobio.  You’re not the Tobio that I knew three years ago and it hurt to see that across the net.  If you’re the king that rules the court, then I’ll have to be the one that defeats you.  I’ll be the last one standing!”

“Shouyou . . .” Tobio reached out with his hand; he dropped his arm and clenched his hands into fists when he realised what he was doing.  Shouyou knew that Tobio hated to see him cry and the same could be said about Shouyou seeing Tobio cry.

“Isn’t it funny?” Shouyou chuckled through his treacherous tears.  “You and I wouldn’t be standing where we are only if you didn’t choose to keep one secret from me. A cruel, funny twist of fate.”

Shouyou jumped down the rest of the stairs and headed off to where his team mates were waiting for him.  He gritted his teeth when Tobio grabbed his elbow.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me, Shouyou!” Tobio warned.  “We’re not done talking yet.  I won’t let you leave until you have forgiven me, dammit!”

Shouyou flung Tobio’s hand away from him.  “But we are.  We were done the second you decided it would be best that you not tell me about your moving away.  I’m not your friend anymore, not with how much you have changed.  Good bye, your majesty.”

If he turned back around right after, he would have been able to see the tears gather in Tobio’s eyes.  Tobio would have had the courage to stop Shouyou again and tell him what he had wanted to tell him three years ago.

But it didn’t happen.  Tobio couldn’t bear the thought of another rejection and Shouyou didn’t want his heart to endure another crack.

 

 

-

 

 

Shouyou was full of hopes and dreams as high school started.  He was going to join the Karasuno volleyball club and become the next Small Giant.  He didn’t even mind the long commute since it could serve as stamina training.

Of course, things never went his way.

On the very first day, he ran into Tobio in the gym.  What was worse was that thanks to their lack of teamwork, the captain forbade them from joining the club.

“It’s all your fault!” Tobio growled.

“My fault?  Who was it that told a huge lie and made himself untrustworthy?” Shouyou countered.  That shut Tobio up, also making him miss the ball.

“We can’t practice with the team until we get along so can we please call it a truce?’ Tobio reasoned.  “How long are you going to hold this grudge, Shouyou?”

“It’s not something petty like a grudge!” Shouyou huffed.  “And don’t call me that.  Only my friends can call me Shouyou, not a backstabbing jerk who moved away without telling me until the very last minute.”

“And how many times have I apologized for that?” Tobio asked, clearly exasperated.

“We’ll see.  Just toss me the ball already.”

Tobio threw the ball up but instead of bumping it to Shouyou, it caught it.  Before Shouyou could ask what he was up to, Tobio crossed the distance between them.  He grabbed Shouyou’s shoulders with both hands.

“I’m sorry, Sho—Hinata.  I know I sound like a coward but I couldn’t tell you right away because that was around the time I realised something important about me and you.  Remember when you asked me if I liked anyone?”

Shouyou remembered.  It was the day Yata got a confession from a cute girl and Momo was jealous about it.  “Yeah? What about it?”

“Do you remember what I told you?”

Shouyou couldn’t figure out why Tobio was dragging this out.  “You said that you had liked a boy for years.  I can see that you’re stalling.  Tell me what the deal is already.”

“The boy that I’ve liked since I met him . . . the boy I fell in love with pretty much from the get-go . . . it’s you, Shouyou.”

“Y-you’re—don’t lie—I’m not going to forgive you just because you say that you love me, jerk face!”

“But it’s true!” Tobio argued.  “I made you cry because I took the orange and yellow crayons.  I knew I liked you but I didn’t know how to talk to you or get you to talk to me.  I felt so bad when I saw you cry.  During nap time, I switched over to sleep next to you and when I woke up and saw that you hadn’t objected to us holding hands, I was over the moon with joy.  I thought about coming clean to you with my feelings but I didn’t want to lose our precious friendship we had built over the years.  Please believe me, Hinata.”

“This isn’t a stupid romance manga!” Shouyou argued back.  “You can’t fix everything with a sorry and an ‘I love you’.  Simple words can’t heal the years of hurt, y’know.  You really are a king to think that I would forgive you once you confessed your true feelings.”

“You’re acting pretty selfish, too,” Tobio pointed out.

“That’s rich coming from you,” Shouyou snapped back.

Tobio slid his hands down to Shouyou’s hands to restrain him as he leaned down and kissed Shouyou on the lips.  Time appeared to freeze in that moment.  Tobio’s lips were chapped but warm against Shouyou’s.  His kiss tasted faintly of a yoghurt drink that Tobio used to drink all the time back in elementary school.  The kiss felt so familiar even though it was the first time they ever kissed.

Speaking of.  “Asshole!” Shouyou yelled, punching Tobio in the face.  Tobio yelped and brought his hand up to cup his jaw.  Holy crap.  That was his first kiss!  He had always thought that his first kiss would happen in a much more romantic way.  He would drop off his date after dinner or something like that and kiss them before they parted ways.  Never in a million years did he imagine that his first kiss would be stolen by the jerk who threw their friendship away!  And why was Tobio so good at kissing?  Was it possible that Tobio had kissed other people before him?  If that was true, what was up with the surge of jealousy that Shouyou felt?

He picked up his bike from where it had fallen and sped away from Tobio.  What the hell just happened?  It must be dreaming.  Tobio?  Liked _him_?  Shouyou?  It was as cliché as it could get.  If he were to follow along with the basic cliché of an anime, then it also meant that he and Tobio would never have chance.

He really hated Tobio.

 

 

-

 

 

It was impossible to avoid the bastard to stole his first kiss when the said bastard was in the same club.  Shouyou could skip club practice saying that he was sick but he loved volleyball to much to chicken out like that.  Not the mention that Tobio knew where he lived.

Tobio tried to make conversation with him but Shouyou literally ran away every time he tried.  He would go to Suga to ask for serving help or Daichi for practicing receives.  Only a fool would miss the fact that something had gone wrong between him and Tobio.  To top it off, Tobio looked even more sullen than his usual self.

“Did something happen?” Tanaka asked as they got changed for classes once the morning practice was over.

Shouyou could feel his cheeks burn up as his mind recalled the sensation of Tobio’s lips moving with his.  “Kageyama was a big jerk to me last night, that’s all.”

Tanaka guffawed.  “You two fight everyday.  I’m sure you’ll make up in no time.”

As if Shouyou could Tobio for what he did years ago as well as stealing his first kiss!  “I don’t think it’s that simple, Tanaka-san.  He was being a bigger insensitive jerk than he ever has been.”

“Well we can’t have our newest weapon at each other’s throats,” Suga butted in.  “I order you to talk it out with Kageyama before this afternoon’s practice.  Or we’ll kick you out of the gym again and have you run laps around the school.”

“Ehhh?  That’s not fair, Suga-san,” Shouyou protested.

“Man up, Hinata.  Team work is everything in a sport like volleyball.  Don’t be a baby, seriously.  Daichi will get mad if you two stay mad at each other.”

The thought of Daichi getting mad at him definitely outweighed having to confront Tobio about what happened yesterday.  “Okay.”

Suga patted his head and ruffled up his hair.  “There’s a lad.  Now hurry up and get changed.  You shouldn’t be late for classes!”

With each hour that passed, Shouyou dreaded the impending talk with Tobio.  He had no doubt that Suga had gone ahead and told Tobio to make up with him.  He would just have to man up like Suga and listen to Tobio beg for forgiveness.  Yeah, that was his plan.

Except, Tobio decided to show up at his classroom door, scaring a few of his classes.  “Shouyou!” he shouted.  Shouyou wanted to crawl into a hole and stay in there until Tobio went away.  “We need to talk!”

“Shut up!” Shouyou yelled back.  “Let’s go somewhere else.”

Tobio nodded and took his hand like it was the most natural thing to do.  Shouyou’s fingers tingled where Tobio touched.  He wanted to slap himself; he wasn’t the generic protagonist of a girly manga!

At the rooftop, Tobio pulled Shouyou to face him and bowed deeply.  “I’m so sorry about everything!  Not telling you about the move, kissing you out of nowhere like that yesterday, just everything!  Please forgive me.  I can’t live on in a world where you hate me, Shouyou.”

“Wh-why’d you kiss me yesterday?” Shouyou blurted out.  _Good one, Shouyou,_ he told himself.  ‘ _Cause that’s the most pressing issue here._

“I told you, didn’t I?” Tobio stated, straightening.  It was so unfair that Tobio had grown to be so tall while Shouyou was stuck in his current height.  “I have loved you since were you little kids.  I had to convince you that I meant what I said and that was the only thing I could think of.”

“That . . . you stole my first kiss,” Shouyou confessed.

“Oh.”

Shouyou studied Tobio’s face.  “Hey! What’re you lookin’ all happy about?”

He pinched Tobio’s cheeks and pulled them down.  “Sohee sohee!  Ow, ow, ow!”

“Serves you right,” Shouyou grumbled, letting go of Tobio’s cheeks.

“I didn’t think that that would be your first kiss,” Tobio answered.  He was so cute when he was blushing.  Gah, he had to stop thinking like this!

“You really do like me, huh?”

Tobio nodded, his face gone red to the tips of his ears.

“Does that mean that you wanna go out with me?”

“Only if you’ll give me a chance!” Tobio exclaimed.  “I want to hold your hand and kiss you all the time.  You’re the first thing that pops into my head when I wake up and the last person I think of before I sleep.  You won’t believe how many times I dreamt up apologising to you and getting to kiss you.  I want to do more than kiss you, of course.  I want to cherish you forever and hold you when we go to sleep together.  I want to be the person who is there for you whether you want to share your joy or need a shoulder to cry on.  I want us to still be together when we’re old and wrinkly and can’t even play volleyball together.  That’s what I meant when I said that I love you, Shouyou.”

“You jerk,” Shouyou muttered.  “I can’t hate when you say something like that.  Since when were you such a hopeless romantic, Tobio?”

“Since the moment I fell in love with you and then realised I fucked up,” Tobio replied.

“Cheeky.”

Shouyou stood up on his tiptoes.  He cursed his short height when he still could reach Tobio’s lips.  So he hooked his arms behind Tobio’s neck and pulled him down for a kiss.  It wasn’t nearly as long as yesterday’s kiss but Shouyou was sure that he got his message across.

“That’s my answer,” Shouyou mumbled, burying his face in Tobio’s chest.  “Happy?”

“As a fuckin’ clam.”

Tobio held his hand out.  Shouyou took it immediately, feeling his cheeks flare up with heat when Tobio interlaced their fingers together. 

“Let’s go eat lunch together, shall we?”

Shouyou nodded.

 

 

-

 

 

“Whatcha thinking about?” Shouyou asks, popping his head inside the bathroom.  Tobio has just got out of the shower and his hair is still dripping.  Shouyou picks up a towel from the rack and starts to dry off Tobio’s hair.

“Remember when you got mad at me for not telling you that I was gonna move away at the end of elementary school?” Shouyou nods.  “That plus how I convinced you that you were the love of my life.”

Shouyou laughs, taking another towel and patting down Tobio’s arms, shoulder, torso and then lower.  “I was a stubborn little prick.  I think I was mostly mad that you stole my first kiss from me.”

Tobio’s breath hitches when Shouyou’s hands linger between his thighs.  “It’s reasonable.  I was too afraid to tell you I loved you when I had the chance—what is it, more than a decade ago?—in elementary school.  I should have manned up and told you when we were talking about crushes.”

“I might have believed you then.” Shouyou smirks as he slides his hand up higher from its previous position.

“I literally just got out of the shower,” Tobio points out.

“That’s fine,” Shouyou drops to his knees.  “I’ll wear a condom and clean you up real good.”

Tobio gasps as Shouyou kisses and sucks on the sensitive skin on his inner thighs.  “You play dirty.”

“I never claimed otherwise.”  Shouyou sucks a particularly large bruise right on the crease between Tobio’s thigh and groin.

“Oh, trust me, I know,” Tobio retorts.  ‘Don’t be a damn tease and get on with it already!”

Shouyou withdraws and drums his fingertips on Tobio’s hipbones.  “What’s the magic word?”

“I will stop waking you up with blow jobs if you drag this out.”

“Fine, fine,” Shouyou huffs.  “Don’t blame me if you can’t make it to the bed.”

Tobio smirks.  “Have I ever complained about getting down and dirty on the floor?”

Shouyou shrugs.  “Good point.  Shall we then?”


End file.
